How can I repair damaged hair?

How can I repair damaged hair? It’s a question we’ve all asked. Whether it's from too much bleaching or excessive use of styling tools, hair damage happens to even the most careful of us. If your hair’s reaching breaking point, see our guide below on how you can repair damaged hair and restore it to its former glory.

How to tell if I have damaged hair?

Before we get into how to repair the damage, let’s talk about how to identify it. It may seem obvious, but you’re anything like us it takes your hairdresser pointing out the damage before you really accept you’ve got a problem. However, if you notice a change in your hair early enough, it will be easier to repair the problem before it gets too extreme for help.

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1. A lack of shine

Damaged hair lacks that beautiful shine we all desire, instead of having a brittle, straw-like appearance.

2. No shine even after a deep conditioning treatment.

The most obvious sign of damage is split ends. A quick test, take a bit of your hair, and gently twist it. Take a look at the very end of the strands. If the ends are split in two (or more, eek!), your hair is damaged.

3. Dryness

Dry hair isn’t always damaged, but damaged hair is always dry. Damaged cuticles are unable to hold in moisture, so if your hair looks dry no matter how many deep treatments you put it through, your suffering with damaged hair.

4. Lack of Elasticity

Every hair strand has a little stretch to it before it snaps. For those of you with damaged hair, your strands are a lot less than a healthy, therefore lack this elasticity. Meaning, if your hair snaps very easily, it is likely that it is damaged.

5. You’re tangled

Sleek, smooth, and shiny hair has sleek, smooth, and shiny cuticles. When your hair is damaged, these cuticles become rough, causing hair to tangle and knot. The dryness of damaged hair makes it hard to get these tangles out, leading to breakage...

6. Breakage

This one is pretty obvious. If your hair snaps while you comb it or even just run your fingers through it, it’s damaged.

How Can I Repair Damaged Hair?

Okay, so you’ve identified that your hair is damaged, so how can you repair damaged hair when it seems as if it’s reached breaking point?

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1. Get a Trim

If you’re anything like us a trim is something you try to put off for as long as possible. But lockdown has got us waiting a bit longer than usual, it's been almost 3 months without a trip to the hairdresser. However, if you’ve got severely damaged hair with a lot of split ends a quick trim is your best bet. This doesn’t mean you have to go for the big chop but a light trim can do wonders for your hair, result in it growing longer and healthier and give the appearance of thicker strands, all whilst removing that unwanted damage. Guidelines are suggesting salons will reopen next month. If you want to get an appointment as soon as they open (like us), ty checking your salon's website to see if you can book an online appointment now.

2. Rebuild split Ends

While you're waiting for that appointment give split ends and frizz some TLC with our pH Balance Fibre Sealing Spit Ends Treatment.  Cuticle Smoothing Technology works to help smooth and rebuild broken strands. Our top tip: Pay close attention to ends, to seal cuticles. Less split ends = less frizz!

93% of women agree it improved the appearance of split ends!*

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3. Style carefully

Tight buns, super detailed fishtail braids or sleek ponytails can all cause damage to your hair. If you’re worried about damaged hair, it can be a good idea to give your hair a bit of a break. If you still want to keep your hair off of your face our favorite damage proof styles include messy buns, loose braids, and chic chignons. These all work to give your gorgeous up-dos without the damage.

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4. Choose the right products

It’s time to give your hair some TLC as the nights get colder and darker. A change in seasons gives more damage to your hair! which is why the hair products you choose can make all the difference to repair damaged hair. Save stressed-out strands from the inside with our NEWLY reformulated Intelligent Haircare Repair Range.

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Packed with fortifying Capuacu Butter, Carob Tree Peptide and Bamboo Extract for intense nourishment to restore condition, leaving behind supple, revitalized, stronger, AND healthier-looking hair!

90% of women said that repair helped to improve the condition of their hair, leaving it looking and feeling healthier, stronger and nourished.

A popular ingredient in many hair care products, especially 'repair' products is SLES. SLES is short for sodium laureth sulfate and is essentially a foaming agent that makes all those little bubbles in a shampoo! However, science tells us SLES might not be that great for hair and scalp health! So that's why at GG we have no foam-o! We remove the foam, so instead, we packed our repair shampoo with active ingredients to repair your hair from within!

Our Repair Range gets right inside the problem of hair damage and reinforcing stands instead of just masking the issue. Rich in Cupuassu Butter, Amino Acids, and Bamboo Extract it repairs, protects, and strengthens damaged strands!

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4. Avoid heat

Is it getting hot in here? We like our straighteners, curlers and hairdryer as much as the next girl, but if you’re using them all on maximum heat, they will be contributing to hair damage. If you’re looking to really revive damaged strands, you’ll need to go au-naturel for a little while and try to only use heat tools at a minimum until your hair is in better condition.

If you are going to blow dry your hair, go for a cooler temperature and don’t blast the heat too close to the hair for too long and make sure to never pull the hair hard.

5. Use a silk pillowcase

If you’re prone to waking with super tangled tresses, your tossing and turning could be causing to friction damage to the hair shaft. Invest in a silk pillowcase to reduce the damage to your hair (plus they’ve been known to be an anti-ageing must!)

6. Eat well

Eat your way to healthy hair! We’ve said this before but it’s true, the health of your tresses is directly connected to your diet. To keep your hair in the very best condition you need to eat a balanced diet with lots of fruits, veg, proteins and vitamins. Want details on the perfect diet to repair damaged hair? Take a read of our healthy hair diet!